Maple Syrup and Birthday Cupcakes
This past weekend a good friend from high school was visiting Boston. K had a conference here last week and stayed to hang out this weekend. On top of hanging out with friends, Butler made it to the Final Four! K went to Butler and is the president of his local alumni club!
On Saturday we decided to partake in some local fun by heading up to New Hampshire to go to a maple house where they boil maple syrup. We had beautiful weather on Saturday. It was a bit chilly but sunny and not a cloud in the sky. After arriving at the Grant Family Maple House, we had some food and got in line to learn all about how maple syrup is made.
What we learned is that the sap from the trees has about 2-3% sugar in it straight from the tree. At that percentage, it would take 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup!! So they first condense the sap until it reaches about 8% sugar. The sap is then boiled to evaporate off the water.
Once the temperature reads 7 degrees above the boiling point of water, you have syrup! The guy in the maple house even explained how they use a baraometer on the wall to get the barometric pressure so they know the exact boiling temperature of water for that given day. It was all very scientific and extremely interesting.
The small bottles of maple syrup were a sample from each batch they had made at the maple house this season. The guy explained that as the season goes on, the syrup tends to get darker due to the change in the amount of sugar in the sap.
Of course, we had to get some maple products while we were there. Obviously, maple syrup. We also got some maple candies, some maple sugar, and some maple pepper. Can’t wait to find creative ways to use the sugar and pepper. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!
Also, since K’s birthday was last week, I made him some cupcakes to celebrate. I went with my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe. I love that you can whip these up by dirtying only one bowl and using a whisk! I dipped them in some ganache and topped with festive sprinkles. Aren’t they pretty?
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This look absolutely FABULOUS! 🙂 I love oreo’s… They could quite possibly be my favorite snack food.! I’m defientely adding this recipe to my collection of cakes to bake! Thanks for sharing.
Megan♥
http://urbakinmecrazyy.blogspot.com/
that is one of the MOST impressive cakes I’ve ever seen! You always amaze me with your creativity! very inspirational.
OMG – I want!!! 😀
hi is it ok to use regular coffee?like maxwell?how many teaspoon of maxwell should i use?thanks
This looks AMAZING! What did you use to hold the Oreos in place on the top? Is that Oreo filling?
Love this cake – made it for my hubby’s 30th! Just a quick question as I had a little trouble with the Oreo filling. It was a bit thin. I think the problem might be the type of cream I used as we don’t have heavy cream in Australia (at least it’s not called heavy cream) so does anyone know what type of cream I should use? Thanks heaps 🙂
This cake turned out amazing! I omitted the coffee from the frosting and it was perfect without but im sure it would have been prefect with. It was a process to make it but well worth it! Just as good if not better than a bakery cake!
beantownbaker — December 24th, 2012 @ 5:48 pm
Yes, it’s definitely a lot of work, but worth the effort! Glad you enjoyed it.
Found you on Carole’s Chatter Food on Friday link-up. This cake looks like perfection!! I definitely need to try it soon:)
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:33 pm
Thanks and welcome! You should definitely make this cake if you like Oreos at all.
OMG, I love oreo so much!!! I will try to make this cake someday! Thank you for the delicious recipe!
beantownbaker — July 22nd, 2013 @ 1:13 pm
It definitely takes a little bit of extra effort, but it’s so worth it!
What size pkg of Oreos? I just came home with one that only has 3 rows, ugh? It’s 14.3 oz. is that the same size? Thanks!!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:09 pm
Did that work for you? I will have to check next time I am at the store. I just get the standard size with 3 rows.